The Shanghai-based developer of Alice: Madness Returns and Akaneiro: Demon Hunters has shrunk down to "a core team who will pivot away from F2P," according to a tweet by McGee.

"... the F2P space has become quite brutal in recent years, and after 5 years and 7 titles, I feel it's time we pivot to something new," McGee elaborated, in a post on game forum NeoGAF.

"Life as an independent developer is filled with the constant threat of failure," McGee remarked in 2014, the last time his studio shrunk -- at that time in the wake of disappointing returns on the initial investment in free-to-play title Akaneiro.